ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit issues an apology to Florida State fans on social media

Florida State fans will likely never forget what happened in December with the College Football Playoff committee leaving the Seminoles out of the playoff "invitational" over a one-loss Alabama Crimson Tide team.

The same can be said with the relationship between the Florida State football fan base and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit. As I mentioned in a previous article, Herbstreit does not seem to want to stop throwing gas on the fire when it comes to mentioning Florida State fans.

On Friday night, he elected to go on social media to issue an apology.

It seems like a backhanded apology for someone who has consistently gone after a fan base that was wrongfully not included in the playoffs. Herbstreit graduated from Ohio State, so at least he isn't a Miami Hurricane or Florida Gator.

With that being said though, the analyst made his opinion known throughout the season that the Seminoles did not belong even when Florida State had a healthy quarterback Jordan Travis in early November. He suggested that both one-loss Texas and one-loss Alabama were better products even with the losses.

When the veteran signal-caller went down with a season-ending injury versus the North Alabama Lions, it added fuel to the fire where Herbstreit's thoughts became something that ESPN and the playoff committee could not ignore.

I am not one to suggest that Herbstreit is the reason behind Florida State being left out of the playoff. I am also not discrediting the fact that the Seminoles were not a different team without quarterback Jordan Travis.

However, it should be rewarded that Florida State did everything that it had to do to go undefeated in the regular season and win an ACC Championship. Seminole fans have to put their anger out on someone (and rightfully so).

It seems like Kirk Herbstreit needs to stick to being an individual who covers the entire sport rather than consistently focusing on riling up Florida State fans on social media. I wish Herbstreit nothing but the best as College Gameday will be there for the Seminoles' 2024 football season opener versus the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Ireland.